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EWEA 2011: Europe needs renewable energy targets beyond 2020

The EU needs to adopt binding renewable energy targets for 2030 to ensure long-term investment, according to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).

By Renewable Energy Focus staff

EWEA’s President, Arthouros Zervos, said at EWEA 2011: “The wind industry expects to invest some €400 billion in Europe between now and 2030. To do so it needs stable and certain EU energy policy.”

EWEA believes the EU must continue its successful policy which so far has underpinned renewable energy developments in Europe.

“We are facing a policy vacuum after 2020,” Zervous said. “We must ensure that the renewable energy targets established in 2001 and 2009 are replicated for the period after 2020 with ambitious 2030 targets. We must ensure that the success story of renewable energy in Europe survives beyond 2020.”

Wind energy could meet 28.5% of the EU’s electricity demand by 2030, and Member States’ National Renewable Energy Action Plans already show a potential of 14% of EU electricity coming from wind power by 2020.

Zervous added: “European Commission President Barroso and the other EU leaders need to consider their legacy. They need to provide the renewables sector with a stable framework in which to grow and provide renewable power, new jobs, manufacturing and construction in Europe by giving us targets for 2030, and within the next four years.

“For some 2020 is far away. For politicians it is at least two elections away – a political lifetime. But for the electricity industry it is the day after tomorrow.”

Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament commented to the EWEA 2011 audience: “Eu energy policy needs long-term decisions, not just to achieve our 2020 commitments, but also to create certainty for industry on the road to a low-carbon economy and to 80% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.”

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